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U.S. election: Obama supporters celebrate in Chicago

To the 10,000 cheering supporters at U.S. President Barack Obama’s headquarters at the sprawling McCormick Place convention centre here, a second term was greeted with unadulterated ecstasy Tuesday.

Supporters of Barack Obama cheer at his Chicago headquarters after networks project his re-election as president Tuesday night. (Chip Somodevilla / GETTY IMAGES)

By Robert BenzieQueen Park Bureau Chief

Wed., Nov. 7, 2012

CHICAGO—Four more years.

To the 10,000 cheering supporters at U.S. President Barack Obama’s headquarters at the sprawling McCormick Place convention centre here, a second term was greeted with unadulterated ecstasy.

“We know in our hearts that for the United States of America the best is yet to come,” Obama said at around 1:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

Emphasizing America is a nation of “tolerance,” he praised his challenger Mitt Romney and said their passionate differences should not overshadow the fact that they are lucky to live in a country where disagreement is allowed and even encouraged.

“Tonight, you voted for action, not politics as usual. You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours.”

When the major American television networks called Tuesday's election for him shortly after 11 p.m., the throng erupted.

“We Have Overcome,” exclaimed a large sign brandished by backers feverishly weaving their way through the packed hall floor.

Gathered were some of the president's most tireless volunteers. Only those who agreed to pull vote in neighbouring swing states were given tickets and their enthusiasm was not just be a show for the thousands of journalists from around the world covering Obama.

With the president winning state after state — including Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan, and Colorado, which were seen as crucial for Romney — they grew louder and louder into the night, dancing to deafening music.

While no longer the shimmering agent of “Hope” and “Change” of four years ago, Obama remains an inspirational figure to many Americans, a champion for women, young people, and visible minorities.

Playing it cool right until the end, he projected confidence on the last day of the most expensive political campaign ever where billions were spent on attack ads that saturated the U.S. airwaves for months.

In contrast to the panicked Romney’s mad dash to Ohio and Pennsylvania for some desperate, last-ditch campaigning, the president spent part of the day relaxing at his home in the leafy Chicago enclave of Kenwood.

“The great thing about these campaigns is after all the TV ads, all the fundraising and all the debates and all the electioneering is it comes down to this,” Obama told reporters during a surprise visit to a campaign office in nearby Hyde Park earlier in the day.

“One day — and these incredible folks who are working so hard, making phone calls, making sure the people go out to vote,” he said.

The president did some interviews with TV stations in swing-state cities, called supporters, and, as is his superstitious Election Day tradition, played pick-up basketball with his friends at Attack Athletics, a sports complex 10 minutes from his house.

Only once has Obama neglected to hit the court on voting day — in the 2008 New Hampshire primary that he narrowly lost to Hillary Clinton.

“We made the mistake of not playing basketball one. I can assure you we will not repeat that,” adviser Robert Gibbs said wryly.

Thanks to constitutionally mandated presidential term limits, Tuesday marked the final day of the 51-year-old Obama’s last-ever campaign.

It also concludes one of the most improbable electoral journeys in American history.

Obama, then a candidate for the junior Senate seat in Illinois, only came national prominence at the 2004 Democratic national convention in Boston, where his keynote speech electrified the party.

Almost immediately after entering the Senate — bolstered by his two best-selling memoirs Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope — he began preparing a presidential bid.

Despite his speechmaking prowess, he was considered a long-shot against Clinton and even early favourites like John Edwards, Democratic nominee John Kerry’s running mate in 2004.

With an unusual name — his surname rhymes with Osama (as in bin Laden) and his middle name is Hussein — Obama’s African-American heritage was considered only one drawback.

The Honolulu-born son of a white Kansan mother and Kenyan father was considered exotic even by many in the African-American community.

But armed with one of the best campaign teams ever assembled — led by David Axelrod, a former Chicago Tribune reporter who for two years was a paid consultant to Dalton McGuinty before he was elected Ontario premier — he stunned the Democratic establishment, winning the party's nomination in 2008.

That primary race proved to be almost a tougher test than the general election where he and running mate Joe Biden, a veteran Delaware senator, thumped Arizona Senator John McCain and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Inheriting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a melting down economy from president George W. Bush, Obama struggled through his first term.

While he enacted long-anticipated health-care reform, bailed out General Motors and Chrysler, saved the U.S. auto industry with government loans, withdrew troops from Iraq, and succeeded in killing Osama bin Laden last year, he did little to end the partisan gridlock in Washington.

Just about the only thing Democrats and Republicans could agree upon was dubbing the health bill ObamaCare — though the GOP did so derisively and the president's party reluctantly co-opted the term.

Unlike the demonstrative former president Bill Clinton, who has rallied support for him repeatedly during the final stretch of the campaign, Obama remains a remote and aloof figure to many Americans.

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